


White Outburst

by Buzzard124



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Gift Fic, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Intervention, Mind Control, Non-Canonical Violence, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Steven Universe Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:55:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23402590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buzzard124/pseuds/Buzzard124
Summary: The Crystal Gems are called for an emergency at Homeworld
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Ruby/Sapphire (Steven Universe)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 94





	White Outburst

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wowthwtslame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wowthwtslame/gifts).



> this is a gift fic for wowthwtslame on AO3/Twig._ on Instagram as its her birthday and she deserves it  
> It's based on one of her pieces showing off something very similar

An assortment of footsteps could be heard throughout the palace as a group rushed past room after room. Echoes could be heard from all throughout the palace as the group dashed towards the biggest door in the palace. The very same door that led to White Diamond’s chambers, where the course of history was once forever altered, and now the very same thing is happening. The doors swung open with the force of a full gem armada and in stepped five figures. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Volleyball and Connie, as they fearlessly stood before the three diamonds, but they seemed… off. They were huddling around something, almost trying to hide it, to protect it. They seemed upset, like they had done something horrible and were immediately regretting it. Sort of like saying something nasty to your best friend, and now they hate you for it. Faint murmuring could be heard from each of them. It quickly stopped as each of them turned to see the group standing before them. Each with a look of horror, shame and pity in their eyes. They still tried to hide what was behind them, with the subtlety of a brass band. The room stood dead silent for what seemed like eternity. Like everyone was at a loss for words. A sentence was on the tip of their tongues but refused to come through. Like a stubborn cat, refusing to get off your stuff.

“What happened here?” a voice called from the group. It was Pearl. Not Volleyball Pearl, but just Pearl. Her voice was determined. Far braver and bolder last time she talked to the Diamonds. Maybe she could because she was technically Steven’s Pearl, but it was more likely that the Diamond’s had softened up tremendously within the three years they have been together. The Diamonds looked at her. Their ferocious and stoic demeanour had changed into ones of meekness and regret. Another heavy silence fell upon the group. Pearls eyes wandered around the chambers and noticed the large cracks in the walls. It wasn’t something you would see in a Diamond’s chambers. The only other time she saw cracks in a Diamonds quarters was three years ago when they first faced White Diamond. They told her it was caused by White Diamond slamming her fist down in frustration. It was like Sugilite had a fit and all of this was the result.

“Did Steven have an outburst?” Amethyst called from the back of the group as she stepped forwards towards the three Diamonds. They still weren’t sure what to do. Instead of saying anything they parted away from each other to show what was behind them. It was Spinel. Her arms stretched around another figure. Like a present of some sort, however it wasn’t one of the good kinds as she slowly released her grip, revealing the horror she protected from them. It was. Steven?

He stood there. Silently, like a ghost, or more like someone caught in the act. He’s expression was one of sadness. He at least had the colouring of a ghost. His skin, clothes, hair, eyes, nails everything about him was a shade of white. The same as what most gems in the room once had three years ago when they first stood up to White Diamond. Steven solemnly stood there as the group rushed towards him to inspect the boy who stood before them. The Diamonds looked ashamed as they parted further away from him. Yellow was on the verge of crying, while Blue seemed mad and upset. It was like their personalities had swapped with each other. Then there was White. She had a  _ look _ . It was on the verge of being upset, but it was more of a look of disappointment. Whether it was at Steven or herself, that was impossible to know for sure.

As the group looked at Steven to see if he was ok, everything was fine, as fine as seeing a member of your own family being controlled by the once mighty emperor of the universe, except for one little detail. A sizable crack had appeared on his face. It led from the bridge of his nose all the way down left side of his face. As they looked at him in the same expressions of the Diamonds, he finally spoke.

“This was entirely  _ my  _ fault. There is no one else to blame but  _ ME.”  _ The group immediately turned to look at White Diamond, who had kept up her look of disappointment, however now with a sizable amount of guilt backing up the façade. Connie slowly reached for her sword.

“Yeah, you’re totally right about that”

White Diamond was taken aback by the accusation. She went to speak but was beaten out by Blue’s defence.

“You think she wanted to do this? Steven was furious! His outburst could’ve poofed or even shattered all of us!” She further gestured towards the walls, bringing attention to the cracks that lined them. Yellow quickly stepped forward and put her hand on Blue’s shoulder, her eyes filled with sadness as she spoke.

“The outcome you see before is one that we didn’t want to go through with. This is the last thing we wanted to do to Steven” Yellow paused as she wiped away some tears that had slowly formed during the time the group had arrived.

“We” She paused again and calmly gestured her arms to the other Diamonds and Spinel. Her voice on the brink of breaking into a sob “Are terribly sorry for what we have done”. Garnet stepped forward slowly towards the towering figure, her glasses faded, so she could look could the Diamond in the eyes. Without the thin veil of uncertainty that the glasses usually provided Garnet, Yellow Diamond lowered herself down to look at Garnet. Eye-to-eye. A single word came through Garnet as they quietly looked at each other

“Why?”

Yellow looked back to Blue who looked back to White. White quickly turned away to a terminal and started pressing an assortment of buttons.

“This will answer your question fus- “. White stopped herself before she finished as she readjusted her word choice. It was obvious that it was something that Steven would not have approved. It was weird to see her be conscious about what she says around others. Maybe Steven’s teachings were rubbing off on her, or maybe it’s a form of guilt for what she did. It didn’t matter anyway.

“This will answer your question…” She paused as she tried to remember the fusions name. Spinel quickly stretched up and whispered in her ear.

“Oh Garnet of course! Yes, this will answer your questions.” Her tone carried tiredness. Like she didn’t want to show what happened, but she was  _ forced  _ to, reinforced by her own guilt. An audio recording started to play.

“How could you go behind my back like this! I trusted you guys! I thought we were going to be transparent about Diamond matters?”

“We had to Steven. This rebellion is getting out of hand.’

“If we don’t do this, then the entirety of Era Three would be wiped out.”

“As much as we want total peace. We need to enforce it. We can’t let those who oppose it be allowed to grow.”

“Remember when I showed up to Earth? One gem nearly took out an entire planet. These guys have soldiers in the hundreds!”

“But we don’t need an army to wipe them out! Can’t we just talk to them about this?”

“You are but a child Starlight, this is out of your hands”

“Don’t you DARE call me that!” A blast could be heard from the recording.

“What was that Steven? Since when could you do that Steven?”

“That my dear, is Pink’s Destructive Power finally giving form”

“NO! This is NOTHING LIKE HER!”

“Oh, you had us fooled for the longest time Pink! There is no Steven. He wouldn’t do any of… this.”

“NO! YOUR WRONG! I AM NOTHING LIKE HER-” another bang could be heard, with the sounds of falling rubble being hinted at in the background.

“White? What are you doing? This power is much worse that Pink’s!”

“-I WON’T EVER BE AS CRUEL OR AS HURTFUL AS SHE WAS-” another bang

“WHITE DO SOMETHING!”

“-TO OTHERS! JUST YOU WAIT!” yet another bang

“Pink that is ENOUGH!”

“I WILL BE BETTER THAN-” A flash and a blood-curdling scream could be heard. Then silence for what seemed like an eternity. Everyone in the room thought it was over. Until

“Why is he all White like you? Steven you ok? Steven!? Why isn’t he responding? What did you do to him White?”

“She had to Spinel. It was for everyone’s best interest-”

“Oh by the stars could humans crack?”

“What did you do White!?

“That wasn’t my fault. Pink was the only gem I know who could crack physical forms, do you remember her previous Pearl?” A gasp came from the recording followed by silence.

“D-did Steven do that to himself?”

The recording finally stopped as the gems looked to Steven, then back to the Diamonds. White’s façade was at its breaking point. Yellow and Blue looked ashamed of themselves, and what they had caused.

“It was just like what happened three years ago” Connie quietly said to herself as she slunk down, tears forming at her eyes as her hands dug into her face.

“Wait, you mean to tell me Steven was the one who caused all that damage? I thought it was White Diamond who did that.” Pearl said as she knelt with Connie. Connie didn’t say anything.

“Did Steven cause the damage to the palace three years ago?” Connie didn’t say anything, once more. She just nodded to the question. The barrier of Steven’s deceit was gone. Pearl stood back up with her hands by her mouth. Connie soon stood up as well and walked back over to Steven, to be with him once more.

“How could you do this to him? He trusted you!  _ WE  _ trusted you! You better let him go RIGHT NOW!” Amethyst called out. The Diamonds looked at each other and gauged on what they should do. Before they could make a decision, a voice called out from within the room. It was loud and desperate, like someone wanting to interject in an argument.

“NO!” It was Garnet. She looked she just panicked internally. She was gasping for air and sweating profusely. It was obvious that she had investigated the possible outcomes.

“You can’t let him go. Not right now at least.” The whole gang, and even the Diamonds looked at Garnet. She had this look of desperation and fear that covered her whole face. It was like something horrible was about to happen. Or something horrible had already happened. Volleyball led the questioning.

“Why not? This is wrong! We can’t leave him like this forever!”

“I didn’t say forever.”

“Then when will we release him? 2 years?”

“We will release him-“

“6 years maybe?”

“Volleyball I need you to listen to me-“

“How about 6000!? Is that good enough for you? Because I- “she was quickly cut off by Garnet who lent down and put her hands on her shoulders and looked at her head on. Her glasses, reflecting Volleyball’s face back at her.

“I know how you felt about being released by White Diamond, and how frustrated and angry you must be about this.” Volleyball continued to look into Garnet’s glasses, for the imposing gem didn’t know how anyone felt anymore, including herself.

“But we must. Act. Reasonable” Volleyball pushed Garnet away from her as she stepped back.

“How is this!” She gestured to Steven, who hadn’t moved in the entire time they had been with him. His expression remained saddened. “Acting reasonable!”

“If we were to release Steven right now, in this place of all places. We would cease to exist. All of us.” Volleyball’s expression turned to curiosity, and everyone listened to what she said in shock.

“Cease to exist? Do you mean being shattered?” Blue’s voice called from above. Her anger had subsided since the video and was back to her regular self. Garnet nodded back, and a gasp could be heard from throughout the room.

“But what about his human friend? She could survive right?” Yellow called back. Her voice went back to her usual fierce and direct tone. Connie shot a look towards Garnet. She hadn’t said anything after her first thrown accusation. She had been so shocked that he could be so angry about this, or this angry in general. She had been informed about the Pink form and the occasional outbursts, but  _ this  _ was so much more. The look Garnet gave back, wasn’t pleasing. It was fear. Fear for not only the safety of everyone in the room, but for Steven himself. Even with the glasses it was obvious, like someone set up a bad joke of sorts. Connie went back over to Steven to be with the tortured soul that stood before everyone

“Steven’s outburst would shatter, and kill, all of us if we let him go.”

“So we just keep him like this? That’s your  _ glorious  _ plan?” Volleyball said once more, showing off her newfound sarcasm that she picked up from her time with Amethyst.

“No we can’t!” It wasn’t Garnet this time. It was Connie coming from where Steven was. She had a scared and horrified look on her face. She was sweating and panting hard. Just like when Garnet first looked into the future. She slowly walked towards the rest of the group, as two of the three Diamonds knelt down to her.

“Connie? What’s the matter? You seem scared” Pearl asked.

“That seems pretty obvious Pearl” Amethyst added.

“This isn’t the time for your snark Amethyst”

“Yeah I know it’s just- everyone seems stressed, y’know? Anyway, what’s wrong?” Connie pointed towards Steven, mainly his face.

“T-The crack is bigger”

Volleyball as soon as she heard this, she darted towards the boy and examined the crack by his mouth. It was spread further across his face, all the across his left eye and half of his mouth, and it was still going, albeit, very slowly. White blood trickled down his face down to the floor, as usual, he didn’t do anything to stop it. The dripping of the blood was the only noise to be heard for what seemed like an unending amount of time. Until sobbing was heard once more. From the most glorious Diamond in the room.

“I-I didn’t know  _ this  _ could happen! I just wanted to stop Steven from hurting us! Now we’ll lose him again! This is all my fault!”

“It wasn’t your fault. As you said, the crack was his own doing.  _ He  _ caused what transpired to happen. He hasn’t found a way to get over what Pink Diamond, and by extension, what he did, and he’s ignoring it. As much as I would hate to say. This was his fault” Volleyball called out from within the group. It was apparent that she was right. As much as they wanted to say otherwise, or to call out Volleyball on her bluntness, they couldn’t. This was  _ his  _ doing.

“So, what your saying is that Steven’s new powers are also self-destructive? Your saying that he can hurt himself with these powers” Yellow said as she stood back up, her hand rubbing her chin trying to fathom the situation. Garnet looked up at her and nodded.

“Wait, Steven’s powers are linked to his emotion’s, right? So, does that mean that he…?” Amethyst stated as the room stared at her, daring her to finish the statement. They knew what she was going to say, that was plain to see, but they couldn’t bear to accept that truth. Amethyst swallowed her sadness and tears back down as she continued.

“So does this mean that he hates himself?” The room fell silent. Not a word came out of anyone’s mouth. Right now, wasn’t the time to discuss the ramifications of that statement.

“Where can we release him then? What’s the most barren, isolated and useless place where we can let this final outburst happen” Spinel questioned, her high pitched voice throwing everyone off guard. She hadn’t said anything since they got there.

“The Prime Kindergarten” Pearl answered back. Each of them looked at one another, nodded in agreement and rushed off to White’s, Yellow’s and Blue’s ships.

* * *

The gems placed Steven on the ground and backed away from his position. They took one more glance at Steven. He looked just about the same for when they first found him. That sombre look was overshadowed by the crack, which had further increased up his face, and was now starting to run down his body, like a virus was taking over his body, bit by bit.

“Do we have to be this far away from him? This seems far too much, I mean 50 meters is huge!” the short purple gem asked as she slumped down behind some rubble.

“Take Garnet’s word for it Amethyst. She’s seen his power like we have. You have no idea the power he possesses, you need to take every precaution” Yellow chimed in as she ducked down slightly, preparing herself for the outburst.

“Did we really have to come here? It’s so barren, and dirty and plain old ugly! This shouldn’t be the first thing Steven should wake up to. Trust me!” White asked as she too ducked down, ready to release control of Steven.

“Do you want to release him in the palace and have it destroyed?” Volleyball snapped back. It was obvious she had some grievances with White. White shot her an annoyed look and rolled her eyes.

“I thought so” she smugly stated. Another Earth attribute she picked up from Amethyst.

“So we all know the plan? When White releases him, we rush in and destroy the falling rubble. Steven must not get hurt! Understand?” Garnet informed. She had seen 471 different outcomes, and knew exactly the one she wanted.

“Release him White!” Pearl ordered nicely. A flash of light came from White’s eyes and colour flooded back to Steven. He changed from shades of white to shades of pink in an instant. It was dead silent. No one muttered a word as blood started pouring from Steven’s body, staining his jacket and shirt. There was a sense of dread as they waited for the power to come from Steven

The group braced themselves as a sweeping blast deafened the group and destroyed the rubble they cowered behind. The walls split open and injectors crumbled apart, tumbling down from the walls they latched onto. Steven stood there, confused and bewildered by the power that showered the walls. As the force subsided, the group rushed in to destroy the rubble and rocks that were to crush Steven. Steven stood, just as confused as he was before, as he watched the crystal gems came along and started smashing the rocks and injector parts that fell by. Time had flown for him. It was like he fell asleep and just woke up again, like time had flown for him, or been stitched together haphazardly. The dust settled, as he noticed the blood and cracks along his face. He wordlessly licked his palm and slapped it on the wound, sealing them instantly without a second of delay. He then looked to the gems and Connie. They were horrified. Looks of unbridled fear and worry plastered over their faces. They had never reached this level, this  _ peak _ or concentrated fear in their existence.

“Is everything ok Steven?”

**Author's Note:**

> holy moly I haven't touched my other fics in a while huh? I'll get back to those, I just needed a break from writing as I felt I was getting burnt out. Also I'm lazy soooo yeah.  
> I'm currently thinking of a second chapter so uh that might come out. Most likely.  
> Keep safe during this quarantine guys!


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